"It's win or go home there," says Beckett, who will pitch today's playoff opener for the Boston Red Sox. "Some things absolutely change when you get into those deals."

With one World Series MVP trophy already, Beckett knows his way around baseball's most pressurized month. He understands the slimmest of margins that separates delirium from devastation.

In many ways, he should experience a wave of familiar sensations as he climbs atop the mound tonight at Fenway Park against the Angels. And yet, the terms are quite different as well this time around.

Instead of being the cocky young ace for a surprise wild-card team in the National League - the "stupid enough" Marlins, in his memorable words - he is the slightly humbled young ace for a well-heeled division champion in the American League.

Instead of carrying the hopes of South Florida's bandwagon baseball fans, he has made himself the standard bearer for generations of Red Sox faithful who eagerly await a second World Series championship in four years.

Instead of arriving at this moment in his second full season in the majors, he reports at the completion of his second season of work in New England.

Instead of starting October with just nine regular-season wins in his back pocket, he strides into the picture at 20-7, a strong Cy Young candidate for the first time in his blister-marred career.

And instead of looking to make up for a lengthy midyear absence, as was the case in 2003, he begins these playoffs off a full summer's workload. He has exceeded 200 innings for the second consecutive season.

Won't that be a factor this time around?

"It won't," Beckett, 27, says flatly.

Why not?

"Because of everything I do to prepare myself every five days," he says.

That's another difference between the '03 Beckett and this year's model. The baby fat has disappeared from his face, which is less rounded, more sculpted now.

He has become a workout fiend, if not on a par with his Texas hero Roger Clemens, then certainly on a similar plane.

"This guy is preparing better, he works a lot harder, he's getting mature, he's getting smarter out there and more comfortable," says Red Sox pitcher Julian Tavarez, who shared a spot in the Marlins' rotation during Beckett's rookie season of 2002. "He has the ability to win the Cy Young three or four years in a row."

The individual stuff can wait until November. For now Beckett's thoughts are on one thing and one thing only: Executing one quality pitch after another, to borrow from the well-worn mantra he learned from former Marlins mentor Al Leiter.

"Execute a bunch of pitches," Beckett says in that classic minimalist way of his, "and you get a lot of outs."

The outs certainly piled up for him in October 2003, when he went 2-2 with a 2.11 ERA in 42 2/3 innings.

Most notably, Beckett knows what it's like to march into Yankee Stadium and close out a World Series. He has gone just 4-3 with a 6.56 ERA in eight starts against the Yankees the past two seasons, yet his new employers are no doubt hoping Beckett can send the Yankees home again in the next round.

So how much will he draw upon his 2003 experience?

"I don't know," he says. "I've only done it that one time. I can't put anything on that. I just have to go out and continue to do what I did the whole season."

If that happens, everybody else is in trouble. Beckett, after all, turned in 20 quality starts in 30 tries and went 10-3 after a Red Sox loss.

"Everybody kind of learns their craft," he says. "I definitely think I'm a little more crafty than I was then [in 2003]. But I don't think as far as stuff or anything goes I'm really any different. I'm going into it on a pretty good note here at the end of the season."

Save the compare-and-contrast exercise for the media types. Save the psychobabble for the talking heads.

It's time for the Red Sox to give Beckett the ball and stand back. He is quieter now, more reserved, but by no means has he lost his edge.

"I want to win another World Series," Beckett says. "I want a ring with a 'B' on it."